Table saw nibbling end of ripped boards

[Jared Cuneo]

My Delta Contractor is nibbling a 64th or so (sometimes a 32nd) off the trailing end of ripped boards on the fence side.

The pattern is visible on the last 3/8 in of the board on the side of the wood facing the table. The top of the board is fine, it just nibbles the bottom corner. The board also makes a sound when it exits off the back of the blade, ie, you can hear the nibbling occuring. The faster I go, the less it nibbles.

I've checked for a tooth on the blade being parallel to the slot and its perfect. The fence is toed out less than 1/64th to the slot, but I have not checked blade and fence directly, though if the above is true, than it *should* be dead on.

Can anyone think of any other causes? I should also note that I don't get burning on a regular basis, only when I go too slow or try to cut real tough exotics. Using a clean WWII blade....

JC

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

could it be spring back on the fence?

[Jared Cuneo]

I'm using a bies fence, it's pretty solid...can I check it somehow? It's straight if I hold a long edge next to it...

Thanks!

[Doug Shepard]

Are you using an outfeed roller stand? Those can steer the board off straight if they're not set up 100% perpendicular to the fence/blade and usually doesn't start until the trailing end as more goes onto the roller.

[Tom Veatch]

Does the length of the rip cut make any difference? If it occurs with short as well as long rips, you could eliminate the fence as a contributor to the problem by seeing if you get the same result using a miter gauge on the same side as the fence to make a crosscut - moving the fence out of the way first, of course.

[glenn bradley]

Doug's got my vote. This is common if the board is allowed to lower as it leaves the saw's table. Do you have a roller stand or other support engaging the material before it gets more than about a foot off the table? To ask another way, once the cut is complete, if you release the board does it just sit there is is gravity kicking in?

[Jared Cuneo]

Well, I feel like a moron, I went and measured slot to blade clearance and it was off!

About a month ago, I was getting crazy errors when cutting at 45 degrees. Turned out I needed to shim my trunnions. At the time, everything was dead on. Sometime between then and now, it went out of whack. A light tap of the trunnion and a few test cuts later, everything is back to normal.

I should have known better....

thanks for all the suggestions.